because of advancing age. he says he no longer has the strength to fulfill his duties. he said he's noticed his strength has deteriorated over recent months. i quote he said to the extent that i've had to recognize my n incapacity. the last time a pope resign of 600 years ago. the stage is set for a conclave elect a new pope. there's a press conference being held now and we'll get more information from that. everyone is waking up to this news, international reaction slowly coming in from the german government because pope benedict is german. they are moved by the news and chancellor angela merkel will

react later. reaction just starting to come in as people hear this breaking news. >> we'll have more on the pope's resignation later on. parts of the gulf coast are waking up to untold damage after a wave of severe storms raked across the region sunday night. the brunt of the storms hit in and around hattiesburg, mississippi, where a long-track tornado ripped across part of the state. the twister traveled down one of the main streets, winding through the university of southern mississippi campus. the governor declared a state of emergency in seven counties reporting damage including downed trees, mangled buildings, and injuries to more than a dozen people. fortunately no deaths have been reported. nbc meteorologist bill karins will have the details on the threat of more severe weather and potential flash floods coming up in a few minutes. residents in southern california remain on edge this morning. day five in the manhunt for a former lapd officer suspected in three cold-blooded killings. l.a. authorities have upped the stakes in the search offering a record $1 million reward for

information leading to the arrest of christopher dorner. >> reporter: law enforcement sources say this is christopher dorner dumping a gun belt, a helmet, lapd uniform, and ammunition the morning after his first two murders. the surveillance video captured across the street from a san diego police station. >> the helmet was sitting right up top, and the magazine and the belt was hidden under the boxes. >> reporter: the former cop, now fugitive, accused of killing three and wounding two others, was fired from the lapd after making false complaints about his training officer. now the los angeles police chief says a week after the killing spree began, he'll reopen dorner's case. >> people think that maybe there is something to what he says. and i want to put that to rest. the only way i know so how to review what's been reviewed at multiple levels. >> reporter: the search for dorner in the mountains is one

of the largest manhunts in state history with investigators now saying they've discovered a cache of weapons and camping gear in his broken down truck. this as the tsa issued an emergency bulletin to regional airports warning the former navy reservist may have flight training. >> that was nbc's miguel almaguer reporting. president obama will be putting the final touches on his state of the union speech to be delivered tomorrow night. he's expected to explain his agenda for the next four years and lay the groundwork for the big budget battle with congress. brian mooar has a preview. >> reporter: the economy, jobs, and the middle class are expected to be center stage tuesday night as president obama delivers his fourth state of the union address. foreshadowing his second-term agenda, the president will be trying to take the high ground from republicans in the fight over budget cuts. >> they rather ask more from the vast majority of americans and

put our recovery at risk than close even a single tax loophole that benefits the wealthy. >> reporter: the president and democrats are demanding what they see as a fair balance. >> so what we do need is more revenue and more cuts. what i would like to see is in the big, balanced, bold proposal. >> reporter: if there's no deal by march 1st, deep, automatic spending cuts kick in. >> these indiscriminate reductions do not make sense. tell hurt people. it's up to the president to act now. >> reporter: not everyone believes those across-the-board cuts, known as the sequester, could hurt the economy. >> the president's now cater walling about the sequester, so are many republicans. tea party people are saying the sequester's a pittance. >> our journey moves forward. >> reporter: on tuesday night, president obama will have his say from the nation's biggest bully pulpit. brian mooar, nbc news, washington. and a reminder, right here nbc news will have live coverage of the president's state of the union address tuesday night

beginning at 9:00 eastern, 6:00 pacific, right here on nbc. drama on the high seas now. right now a carnival cruise ship is adrift in the gulf of mexico after fire broke out in its engine room sunday. the fire which was extinguished left the carnival "triumph" without propulsion and running on emergency power. none of the more than 4,000 passengers or crew was hurt. a tugboat is expected to tow the ship to a mexican port by wednesday. >> a tragedy on a german cruise ship. a cable snapped during a safety drill on a ship in the canary islands. trapped crew, killing five. no passengers were hurt. okay, so it was an incredible weekend for weather. so what is going to happen today? bill karins has been working overtime. the blizzard on the east coast. tornadoes in mississippi, alabama. what's next? >> nothing huge, probably until the upcoming weekend.

we have a couple of weak storms but nothing with what we just got done with. let me show you what happened with the tornadoes in mississippi. this is really primarily one super cell thunderstorm that had a tornado with it that tracked from the border of louisiana and mississippi into alabama. it was primarily this one little path. 15 tornado reports. a lot were from the same tornado. in this area of the country they will have trouble cleaning up. heavy rain once again last night with thunderstorms and flash flooding ongoing and more on the way expecting another possibility of up to two inches of rain. on the west coast, chilly morning. temperatures in l.a. down to 45, 42, 41 in vegas so it's a little cool out there but dry in am all cases. few little showers swinging through mountainous areas in nevada, california and arizona. a few sprinkles in the northwest. if you get hit by rain in the

northwest consider yourself from unlucky, a few showers are hit or miss. more miss than anything else in the santa rosa 63. more clouds in arizona. while all the active weather remains in the east the west will be relatively quiet and tame. >> i'll take that. 60s and sun. >> a lot of us would sign up. >> any day. a job for shooting a reality tv show crash, proof of life on mars and great news for investors. and joe paterno's widow fights back. "early today" is back in two minutes. welcome back.

>> at the top of our news,

surprise news from the leaders of the roman catholic church. pope benedict xvi says he plans to step down at the end of the month. he says he no longer has the strength to fulfill the duties of his office. he will go to his summer residence after he steps down and then later move into a cloistered residence in rome. three people are dead after their helicopter crashed in northern los angeles county. it happened during the filming of a new military-themed reality show for the discovery channel. no word on what caused the crash. the death toll from a stampede during a religious festival in northern india is now up to 36. it happened when railway official announced a last-minute platform change at a train station triggering chaos among tens of thousands of pilgrims. >> more testimony in the arizona trial of a woman charged with stabbing and shooting her lover in a rage.

for the first time the mars rover curiosity drilled a hole into the rocky surface of the red planet and collecting materials for analysis. it was once under water and life once exited on mars. as wall street kicks off a new week traders will be looking to hold on to some impressive gains. the s&p 500 and nasdaq posted six weeks of consecutive gains. first new year six week winning streak in 54 years. markets may add to those gains with another round of earnings ahead. investors will get an update on the earnings of coca-cola and pepsi and get a status on conventional brands versus organic. the health of travel and leisure will be on deck as norwegian cruise lines delivers its bottom line. the past two weeks the price of gas shot up nearly a quarter,

climbing to an average $3.59 a gallon, the biggest single jump in two years. the "economist" released new rankings on the most expensive cities in the world. and tokyo and osaka came in first and second followed by sydney, australia, in third. as for american cities, l.a. and new york city are tied for number 27. over the weekend, boeing got a dreamliner test flight off the ground. the first since the government put the 787s in a holding pattern while it investigates battery-related fires. there is speculation swirling that apple is working on a spy-worthy watch. the gadget is said to feature curved glass to hug your wrist. as we hope you all know -- valentine's day is this thursday. and the national retail federation predicts americans will spend more than $18 billion in total on presents for their moms, their wives, their children, and get this, $815 million of that will be spent on fido. speaking of l'amour, only

the french could dream of this one. this a web site offering business people and travelers easy access to short-term hotel rooms for intraday trysts or a quiet place to work. no need for credit card information. the web site touts la discretion. ooh, la, la. no straight ahead, this year's "sports illustrated" cover month bell. the biggest night in the music industry. remembered more for the moments than the winners. we have got some doozies for you next.

welcome back. now to some stories that caught our eye this morning. in washington, d.c. runners took it off for a good cause. mascots stopped by. over to arizona. sheriff joe arpaio and '80s action star steven segal along with students and officers took part in a controversial school shooting simulation. deputies dressed as gunmen fired blanks while students were ushered out of harm's way. segal joined in to help teach crews how to react and protect in school shooting scenarios. finally, in north dakota, one school mascot brings school spirit to a new level. a 15-year-old was born with a heart defect that nearly took his life over the summer. after a temporary loss of motor

skills, lee returned to the court in full gear and was presented with the school's first-ever lifetime spirit award. in sports now, joe paterno's family fights back challenging the penn state report on the jerry sandusky child sex abuse scandal. the paterno family's report headed up by former pennsylvania governor dick thornburgh says the late coach did nothing wrong in his handling of the jerry sandusky case. former fbi director louis freeh says he stands by his report. thornburgh, also a former u.s. attorney general, says the investigation was fundamentally flawed. >> there's no evidence that anybody's at mr. paterno's investigation was asked to not report things or told to cover up things. and as i said, he was the one who reported the 1991 incident to the authorities. >> notre dame senior got a chance to sink a half-court shot for big bucks pep made it on his second attempt. he won 18,000 bucks.

the bakersfield condor brought a live condor to the game. ahead, over 100 million peopling thought supermodel kate upton's latest commercial. wait until you see her cover for the "sports illustrated" swimsuit edition.

welcome back. a few sprinkles or showers is the worst of the weather in all of the west today. again, in the northwest more clouds than anything else. if you get hit by a sprinkle consider it unlucky. a warm up after a chilly morning from l.a. to san francisco and vegas. tomorrow, kind of a quiet weather week through the west if anything get warmer as the week goes on and tomorrow looks similar to what we're dealing with today. chilly in salt lake city to boise. sprinkles in the northwest not a big deal. >> thanks, bill. there was a whole lot to see and hear at the grammys sunday night. there weren't too many surprises when it came to the awards. mumford and sons won album of the year. gote snagged record of the year, and fun took home song of the year and best new artist. and despite cbs dress code warnings, a few people wore exactly what they wanted to. rihanna went braless in bright red. katy perry wore this body-huggy gown. j. lo decided to show a little

leg -- a whole lot of leg. carry underwood wore a strapless gown with a jaw-dropping $31 million diamond necklace around her neck. that necklace may have done it for her. a whopping 73% of respondents thought that cary was the best dressed at the grammy awards. isn't it ironic, she showed no skin which is so classy. >> she let the necklace speak for herself. >> katy perry comes in second. another notable win was frank ocean but not because of his album. ocean and chris brown brawled a few weeks ago and sunday night's win gave ocean the last laugh. chris brown's loss to ocean topped off a pretty bad weekend for the singer as he also crashed his porsche in beverly hills saturday. brown told police he was trying to evade the paparazzi. okay. "sports illustrated" revealed this swimsuit's cover.

kate upton is front and center and it looks like she was ready for the east coast blizzard, i guess you could say. right? >> she forgot her top. i'm veronica de la cruz. this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

thousands flocked to rio de janeiro for carnivale. some of dancers and costumes were named for the festal. there the floats over 100-feet high. it took an hour to march the full parade route.

an italian cruise or carnivale tradition has a sweet finish with the battle of the oranges. the friendly fight pits village dwellers against cart riders. you wouldn't want to participate in this, bill? >> no. >> over 500 tons of oranges are brought out for this event meaning no participant is spared from a pulpy finish. in china, a folk tradition honored the festival. molten iron heated to 1,000 degrees is thrown on to the cold bricks at the city gate creating this beautiful spark and burst of light. absolutely gorgeous. the dazzling display of these iron flashes seen by thousands is a 500-year-old ritual that ushered in the lunar new year. i feel sorry for that guy, though, right in the middle of it. >> i don't know how he does. the year of the snake. >> it is -- happy year of the snake. >> that's right. >> to you. >> not sure how i feel that.

it is time for a look at some of the stories making news today. in texas, chris kyle will be remembered at cowboys stadium. thousands are expected to attend a memorial service there honoring the life and sacrifice of the former navy s.e.a.l. killed last weekend at a central texas gun range. former army staff sergeant clint ramouchet will be awarded the medal of honor at the white house this afternoon. he's only the fourth living service member to win the event from afghanistan. he'll be a guest of the first lady at tomorrow night's state of the union address. and the kennel club dog show kicks off. ahead of the event, hundreds of the 2,700 k-9 competitors strutted their stuff for charity at a doggy fashion show. all day long, stay on top of the latest developments as they break on msnbc. tonight, watch brian williams with nbc "nightly news." and a look at what's coming

up on the "today" show -- in an exclusive, a navy s.e.a.l. says he's the one who killed osama bin laden. hear from a journalist who interviewed him. and meet two friends who took an unconventional approach to having a baby and raising a child. keep it on this channel for continuing news, weather, sports, and more. i'm veronica de la cruz. thank you very much for watching "early today," just your first stop of the day on your nbc station. happy monday.

that breaking news comes from the vatican this morning where we've learned pope benedict the xvi is stepping down. he made the announcement in latin during a mat just a few hours ago saying he no longer had the strength to continue. this is video of that

announcement from rome. >> with that major news, "today in the bay's" bob redell is live at st. christopher's catholic church in san jose with more details on the breaking story. bob, good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, jon and laura. this news broke around 3:00 this morning local time that pope benedict xvi would be stepping down after eight years as the supreme pontiff. his resignation taking effect february 28th. the end of this month. the news will come as a surprise to many catholics in the bay area because there was no inkling that the pope was considering such a move making him the first pope to resign his position in almost 600 years. his brother has told a german news agency that he had been considering a resignation for months because of failing health. it's become more difficult for him to walk. he's tired. he needs rest. his doctor recently advised him not to take anymore transatlantic trips. a statement from the pope just released by the